So, there's been a lot of issues lately with major companies. And they all give us the same song and dance. But who is suffering with all of these? Perhaps you can guess where I'm going with this, or maybe you can't. There's been a ton of companies lately with major data breaches or serious customer service flaws. And consumers, that's me and you, are suffering from it...
Let's start with data breaches. I think it's obvious why we suffer with these. It's lead to a totally new industry, called identity theft protection. If you are part of one of these breaches your identity, credit rating, and money are all in jeopardy. I think what gets under my skin with these are that the banks are making millions off of selling you services to protect your identity, and if your identity is compromised you have to prove to them that it wasn't you. They won't take your word for it or do the investigation, they'll give you a really difficult time all along the way.
Let's move now to the customer service flaws. There's been several recordings made of calls to Comcast over the last couple of months. I wish I had a link but I'm really too lazy to find one. They've been played to death over the last few weeks so it shouldn't be too difficult to find them. The first I heard was from journalist who was trying to cancel his service because he and his wife were moving to a place where Comcast didn't cover. His wife spoke with them for 20 minutes before he got on the phone because she was so upset. He started recording it and well, if you listen to it, you'll hear the service rep yell at him for 20 minutes. Then another person called and recorded the conversation. Very similar run around for him.
So what my issue with this? All of these companies have the same motto, "We're sorry. This isn't how we run our business and we are looking into how this could have happened." Not necessarily in those exact words but something very similar. Something written and approved by their legal team to make it seem like it is genuine concern yet not leaving the door open for too much trouble. But what makes it so difficult to deal with is that your choices are so limited. The way capitalism is supposed to work is that you speak with your money. How do you speak with your money when there is only 1 broadband provided in your area? Or start shopping somewhere else. The answer is that you can't! If you're talking about a store, you are very limited. All of the small stores have been closed down because of the these huge national stores. And it's unlikely that your loss of business is going to cause them any issues. So what about the broadband. Not only are there virtual monopolies, but they are constantly merging. Meaning your choices are getting smaller and smaller.
I think what puts the icing on the cake is that the one entity that is supposed to protect us, the government, is taking a back seat to all of this. They do nothing to these companies that have allowed your data to leak because they've "apologized" and "promised to do a complete investigation." And they continue to allow the mergers with the cable companies without treating them like the monopoly that they are.
No comments:
Post a Comment